None So Blind
by Becca Stareyes
Summary: Rezo the Red Priest was known for curing any blind person who came to him with the exception of himself . However, he could only work with the willing.


**Author's Note:** This is less of a crossover and more of a fusion, which is kind of the misbegotten lovechild of a crossover and an AU. Suffice to say, instead of the Avatar characters as they are in canon, the story features the cast if they had grown up in the Slayers universe, with the closest things I could think of to mirror their experiences without breaking Slayers' canon.

Plus, I wanted to try out the cross-over posting ability, which meant this story.

* * *

Rezo did have to admit there was something nice about fighters -- the amount of metal they were wearing meant that, unless they were trying to be quiet, it was trivial to hear them coming. Plus, they usually knew enough to be respectful of an obvious sorcerer or priest, even if they didn't recognize him. "Excuse me? Could you show me to the Sorcerer's Guild?" he asked. His assistant had agreed to meet him there, after setting up lodging arrangements with the local Temple. They had been by there earlier, only to find that the library was being temporarily housed at the Guild due to renovations. It was worth looking at anyway -- thanks to substantial donations, the Ishra Temple's selection on books on blindness was said to rival that of the White Magic Capital of Saillune.

"Sure thing," The speaker was younger than he expected -- maybe in his mid teens. "I have to go by and pick up my sister around there anyway."

"Your sister is a sorceress?" Rezo asked. Perhaps not unusual -- adventuring ran in families, though usually magic stuck to magic.

"Yeah. Dad sent us both to the city to finish up learning stuff. He used to be part of the army before he retired. You know the new harbor defenses? Those were so his idea."

Rezo knew very little about weaponry and defenses -- mostly that paying a sorcerer was cheaper than studying explosives and maintaining heavy weaponry -- so he just nodded. He listened to the crowd, trying to get a sense of where in the city they were -- definitely the Magic Quarter, if the cries of the sellers were any indication.

"And here we are," the youth said. "Now where did Katara get to?" Rezo heard the shuffling of position that suggested his guide was looking around. "You can go inside if you like -- I need to wait for my sister."

"Thank you for showing me the way," Rezo replied. After all, it never hurt to be courteous to people, and it kept up the image. He wasn't sure if his guide realized who he was -- sometimes soldiers could be so dense.

"Hey, no problem. Just tell me if you find my sister in there."

"Your sister is Katara, right?" Rezo asked. Not that he would be able to recognize her just by a name and an assumption that she was about her brother's age, but it never hurt to pay attention.

"Yeah. Just tell her that Sokka's waiting for her." Again, Rezo wondered if this young soldier knew he was talking to one of the Five Great Sages.

"I will." He turned as he heard the sound of footsteps -- three of them, two wearing light shoes and one that sounded like bare feet.

"Sokka!" A young woman's voice came from the direction of the newcomers. _Center person, one wearing shoes -- probably the tallest there, but not as tall as my guide._

"Katara, I was looking all over for you. You said you'd meet me right here. Hey, Toph, Aang." The young man spoke to the other two people with his sister in turn, and Rezo heard both of them -- probably just entering their teens, a barefoot girl and a boy in woven sandals -- reply to his greeting.

"I was running late -- I offered to help Aang with his Water Shamanism, and that took a bit longer than I thought."

"Who's the tall guy in the robes and the priest's staff?" the girl with Katara asked -- probably Toph, since Katara had identified Aang as the boy.

"He's wearing red. Hey, Mister? You wouldn't happen to be Rezo the Red Priest?" Aang asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am." Rezo smiled. Trust even student mages to recognize a celebrity.

"And let me guess, Sokka didn't even recognize you," Katara said, with arather smug tone in her voice.

"I did so recognize him -- if he _is_ really Rezo. I just figured that fawning over him like a dragon at a jewelry store was going to do any good. Besides, I kept him around long enough for _you_ to meet him, which probably wouldn't have happened if I'd gone all drooling fanboy."

Rezo had to admit that the young man was a bit brighter than he had given him credit for. Given that he was on business, he probably would have politely demurred any hanging around solely to meet a relative of a stranger. Pretending that he didn't recognize him had peaked his curiosity enough to cause him to hesitate. _With a mind like that, I wonder why he didn't go into magic like his sister._

"Now that you're here, honored priest, I wonder if we could ask your help." Katara spoke, her tone a lot politer than the one she had used to redress her brother.

Rezo sighed. Well, hopefully it wouldn't take long, or he could ask the children to come back _after_ he looked through the library. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, it's our friend, Toph. She's been blind from birth-"

"And not deaf, so don't talk about me like I'm not here, Katara," Toph interrupted, annoyed. "I see where this is going, and the answer is no."

"No what?" Rezo said, certain he had missed something in the conversation.

"No, I don't need some red-robed weirdo trying to fix my eyes." Toph sighed. "It was nice of you to think of me and all, you guys, but, really, I don't need any help."

"But..." This was from Aang.

"I mean it. Don't you guys have to be getting home, anyway?"

Katara sighed. "All right. See you tomorrow, Toph. Aang, you coming to get those books I left at home?"

"Sure... I'll come back for you later, Toph."

Rezo listened to the three of them head off. He also heard Toph turn to leave. "Wait," he said.

"What is it?" she snapped back.

"Can you show me to the library? I'm supposed to meet someone there."

"Fine. Follow me." Toph set a surprisingly fast pace for someone so young, and Rezo found he didn't have to slow his own at all. "You're here for the Temple's books on blindness, right? Wouldn't think such a hot-shot priest like you would need some moldy old white magic books."

"There's always something to be learned," Rezo said. "We sorcerers and priests tend to develop our own little refinements to spells."

"My family donated most of those -- when I was born, Mom and Dad searched over half the continent for anyone or thing that could cure blindness. I'm surprised they didn't try to find you before now."

"And nothing worked?" He started to wonder if this was similar to his own case.

"No. The priests all said that something in my eye didn't grow in right. Recovery spells didn't work that well, since my eyes never had the right pieces in the first place."

"I see." Different from him, then -- her eyes sounded like they had been naturally injured or malformed, rather than the magic he knew was blinding him. It was always a difficult case when children started out blind, rather than losing their vision or sustaining some injury. Most white magic was not set up to repair what was never there. "And why don't you want to fix this?" Her refusal was baffling to him -- perhaps she just didn't want to get her hopes up, which would be such a shame in someone so young.

"Well, when I was eight, my parents found a manuscript on spells to sense magic. It was probably the only way they would have let me learn magic anyway. They wanted the Temple to teach me just enough White Magic and Spirit Shamanism to use the spells."

"I'll note that you're not at the Temple," Rezo said. He heard Toph turn left, and followed.

"Nah. Don't like white magic that much. It's all wussy healing stuff, though some of the exorcism spells are kinda cool, I suppose. Once I learned enough to not get lost, I started sneaking off to the Guild here to listen to the classes. Aang and Katara caught on that I was supposed to be at the Temple -- Aang studies there most days, and Katara considered being a shrine maiden when she first got into town. So, I talked them into covering for me so I could learn what I want."

"Which is?"

"I know enough spirit magic to get around, but I want to learn Earth Shamanism, and be a famous sorceress. I'm already most of the way there," Toph said, proudly. "The four of us are gonna break out of this stupid city when we're finished training and go adventuring. If Rezo the Red Priest can get around without vision, than I can."

"That still doesn't explain why you don't want me to at least try to restore your sight," Rezo said. "Surely, you'd be a better adventurer if you could see."

"Well, I thought about it, but when Aang and Katara tried to learn the see-magic spell, neither of them could make it work as well as I could. About all they can use it for is just identifying talismans and magic swords -- they can't pick out details by seeing where different elements concentrate. It plus their sight was just too distracting. So, I figure I'm stuck with a choice between a sense I have, and one I don't, I'm gonna stick with what I got. I get by well enough -- better than my parents think I do. Besides, if I wanted to fix my eyes, I'd go into studying white magic and do it myself."

"Like I'm trying to do," Rezo smiled, despite knowing neither of them would see it.

"Exactly," Toph paused. "Here's the library. Have fun with the books -- I gotta go."

"If you ever change your mind..."

"If I do, you'll be the first one I talk to. Now, there's some kid that thinks Fire can beat Earth that I gotta go drop into a hole, so I'll see ya later." She turned on her heels and started running back down the hall, apparently confident in her lack of vision.

Rezo had met many people in his travels, seeing cures for their disabilities, and healing for their illnesses, but somehow the people who refused his healing stuck in his mind more. What pride one had to refuse the services of the priest. Though, as time went by, and his own cure remained ever-elusive, he had to wonder if it was not pride at all, but the ability to see the world without illusions -- to move on, rather than chase the chimerical, fleeting hope of a way to have it all.


End file.
